‘Player of the Month’ for Dolan

WESTMEATH scoring star Dessie Dolan and his former UCG room-mate Darren Rooney aren’t the best of friends these days!

However, it’s not that they have fallen out, just that cordial relations have been suspended until after Sunday’s Bank of Ireland Leinster football final.

Rooney is Laois’ best-known dual player and a key member of Mick O’Dwyer’s team. He spent five years studying in Galway with Dolan and they lived in the same house for four of them.

“We chatted the first week after the semi-final. It was like, ‘how are you doing, I’m all right ...’ We weren’t being overly friendly,” he joked yesterday in Dublin, where he received the Vodafone GAA Allstar Player of the Month award for June.

He has a high opinion of the Laoisman from their time in university, where he was deeply immersed in the college hurlng and football teams: “Since he has got on to the Laois senior team he has really nailed down a spot. I think Mick O’Dwyer likes his style of football. He does what he’s told.

From Dessie’s own perspective, he has been one of Westmeath’s outstanding players of recent years, a member of the team which won the All-Ireland Under-21 title in 1999, and captain when the Leinster title was retained the following year. He has also distinguished himself in the International Rules Series with Australia.